Just the week before last, my favorite food writer from the LA Times came up with a brilliant recipe for homemade Nutella.

I haven’t had Nutella since I was a student traveling in Europe decades ago with a EuroRail pass, sleeping in youth hostels. Back then we used to eat the chocolate stuff for breakfast. These days, I find the real thing a little too sweet for my taste. So I was happy to see Amy’s Scattergood’sHomemade Nutella recipe in the Los Angeles Times –what a great idea! And the perfect starting point for a version of my own.

Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

Roast the hazelnuts at 350° for 8-10 minutes until they darken a bit and smell fragrant

Transfer the hazelnuts to a towel and rub off the skins if you can (I didn’t have a lot of luck with this)

In a food processor, grind the hazelnuts to a smooth butter, about 5 minutes, scraping the sides as needed

Add the cacao, agave, vanilla, oil and salt and process until well blended, about a minute

Store in a glass mason jar in the refrigerator

Bring to room temperature prior to serving

Makes 1½ cups

My chocolate hazelnut spread had a consistency that was a bit stickier or gummier than peanut butter. If you want to thin out your spread, add more hazelnut oil. I think this treat has a very similar taste to Nutella, though find the consistency not as creamy. Everyone in my house still seemed to enjoy it as this hazelnut chocolate spread vanished pretty quickly. Even though it’s not exactly the same thing, I like having a decadent treat and at the same time knowing exactly what’s in it!

We’re off to baseball practice. It’s a gorgeous 70 degree day perfect for our first day of spring training in Boulder!

Oh. my. goodness. Excuse my drool!! I’ve longed over and wished I could try those chocolate swirled peanut butters and the grind your own almond butter mixed with chocolate chips for so long!! I never thought of using cocoa powder!
Way to go Elana for eliminating the dairy and cane sugar from this treat! You have made my week… no month :-)

a trick I learned from my chocolate truffle making days for removing hazelnut skins: Save one of those plastic net bags, Whole Foods produce section uses to bag their lemons and limes. After you toast the hazelnuts and cool them. Pour into the plastic net bag and rub the net bag full of hazelnuts between your hands over the sink or cookie sheet pan until pretty much all of the skins flake off. It works quickly and easily.

Last week we found out that our son is highly reactive to peanuts and this would be a treat for him. He was asking for something with chocolate and now we have your delightful recipe to try! A big thank you!

Wow, I haven’t had this since my college Eurotrekkin’ days as well. I was excited to see this recipe! I loved this stuff on pretzels, but now I know I am allegic to gluten and yeast, so I’ll have to find an alternative to dip into it.

Thank you for being a psychic chef! As we are in Europe, Nutella is plentiful…and just this week I was looking longingly at the jar and thinking how that is one treat I actually miss now that I am on a food sensitivities diet. I guess all things ARE possible! :-)

I’ve been missing nutella lately and was drooling over it the other day in a store wishing I could eat it. But the refined sugars in it are a no-no. I have a whole bag of hazelnut meal in my cupboard. I wonder how I could make that work. Yum!!

This is a great idea, I need to try this with peanuts. Or perhaps I could use an all natural peanut butter instead, although I would imagine it might be difficult to mix cocoa powder into peanut butter for some reason…

I made this last night. Wow. I must say this was really good. I changed the recipe a little to fit ingredients I had. Used 100% chocolate no sugar added dark choc bar, and melted it then adding to nut mixture. Then i added canola since i didn’t have hazelnut oil. I didn’t want to wait to make it. This is fantastic. My nutella loving son just adored it. Thanks so much for a much healthier version of a family favorite. That I have to add took only tops 10 minutes to make.

Looking to take out sugar and eat more optimally, we said goodbye to our household staple of Nutella. Just made the recipe…with these variations: Added a bit more oil (macademia is what I had on hand)and unsweetened chocolate almond milk (about 2 tbsp), which achieved the spread like consistency, and an addition of 2 tbsp honey.

This looks delicious! I just saw it at the store the other day and wished I could have it. Thank you so much for your website! I found it a couple of weeks ago and have been THRILLED! I’ve been on a strict Candida diet for months and have had a hard time with feeling deprived. Your recipes have changed that. This is the only place I can find good recipes that use the 2 flours I can have, coconut and almond. I just replace the agave nectar with powder stevia and they work great. My family loves your recipes! Thank you!!!!!

What food processor do you use? I have been dying to make this recipe along with my own almond butter but I doubt that my Magic Bullet will suffice.
Btw, I am new to your website but I am already addicted and eagerly await each new recipe!!
Cheers,

I just found your website because I was searching for nutella recipes! Now I must try at least a dozen of your recipes! I was wondering why you used your food processor for this rather than your vitamix, since the vitamix makes nut butters so well?
thanks!

Elana, along with the cuisinart food processor, I would recommend to your readers to try recipes like this with a Blendtec Blender. It will handle ingredients like nuts very easy and can replace many other appliances in the kitchen.

I FINALLY whipped up a batch of this stuff (it’s been on my list of recipes to try FOREVER), and it is absolutely delicious! I really miss Nutella, and this is the perfect substitution. I used blanched hazelnuts so I did not have to worry about skins and it worked perfectly. Thank you so much for this recipe!

Oh,Elana!! I just had to respond to this post.I also discovered Nutella as a student traveling Europe on a Eurail Pass and staying in youth hostels! We would eat it for breakfast and then smuggle sliced baguette back to the room and snack on it spread thickly with Nutella: heaven. Thanks for the memories :)

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Comments are greatly appreciated! Unfortunately Elana is not able to answer substitution questions, as the only way to know if something works is to test it, and she does not provide this service. If you have a substitution question, please don't hesitate to leave a comment here, and another reader may jump in to answer.
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